Danish left wins elections

The Social Democrats and their centre-left allies have emerged victorious from Denmark’s national elections, ending ten years of Liberal-Conservative rule and producing the country’s first female prime minister.

Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the Social Democrats’ leader, will become the country’s leader if, as expected, Queen Margrethe asks her to form a coalition government in the coming days.

Preliminary results from yesterday’s vote showed that Thorning-Schmidt’s ‘red bloc’ coalition of four parties is likely to secure a majority of up to five seats in the 179-seat parliament.

Thorning-Schmidt, a former member of the European Parliament, is expected to start negotiations later today (16 September) with parties that have pledged their support in forming a coalition.

Establishing a government may be complicated by the Social Democrats’ loss of seats in Thursday’s election. The party finished second to the Liberal Democrats (Venstre) of Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the outgoing prime minister.

Løkke Rasmussen was expected to tender his resignation later today to the queen.

A second complication is differences between the potential partners on how to bring Denmark out of its economic slump.

Thorning-Schmidt will try to form a coalition with the Socialist People’s Party (Socialistisk Folkeparti), the centre-left Liberals (Radikale Venstre) and possibly the leftist Red-Green Alliance (Enhedslisten).

The Social Democrats campaigned on increased government spending to boost economic growth. They also called for tax hikes and for Danes to work an extra 12 minutes per day to boost productivity.

A new government will also have to prepare to hold the presidency of the EU’s Council of Ministers, which starts in January.

The principal challenge that will face Denmark during its presidency of the EU will be to secure a deal among the 27 member states on the EU’s 2014-20 multiannual financial framework (MFF).

The election ended ten years of centre-right rule under a minority Liberal-Conservative party coalition, which was supported by the anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party. The coalition introduced stricter controls on immigration and also implemented pro-market reforms to boost economic growth.